There’s concern from residents of Lincoln County, Tennessee, regarding a black “whiskey” fungus they say is spreading on surfaces all around Jack Daniel’s barrel houses, including their homes and cars.
In public forums, those residents are asking the whiskey maker for better air-filtration systems and an environmental impact study.
A lawsuit was recently filed by a Lincoln County couple alleging that Brown-Forman Corp. was allowed to build new barrel houses in 2018 without an environmental study or building permit.
Tennessee news outlet WHNT previously reported that Lincoln County resident Patrick Long filed a lawsuit to halt construction of any new barrel houses, showing how his nearby home and yard are covered in a black fungus.
This past December, Long was joined by hundreds more at a Lincoln County Commission meeting to discuss the growing fungus problem. At that time, however, the commission did approve the continued construction of more barrel houses.
Now, a Lincoln County judge issued an order saying that it’s been proven that property “has been injured by the inactions and recent actions of Lincoln County since 2021 in how it has chosen to enforce its Zoning Ordinance,” the ruling read.
Lincoln County Chancellor J.B. Cox said in the document that “the court has little choice but to issue a writ compelling Lincoln County, through its office of Zoning and Planning to rescind the building permit for the remaining structure under construction.”
In effect, Lincoln County would have to issue a stop work order until a new, amended site plan is turned in.
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The lawsuit also looked to stop Jack Daniels’ work on up to 14 more barrel houses to come, in both Lincoln County and nearby Moore County.
Currently, Brown-Forman and Jack Daniels have held comments regarding the pending litigation.
But at a public forum last year, according to an article in The Moore County News, Jack Daniel’s official Melvin Keebler said the company monitors its air quality and that existing air-filtration “isn’t meant for whiskey facilities.”
Researchers back in 2007 found that Baudoinia compniacensis is a naturally-occurring fungus that’s known to grow outdoors on surfaces exposed to ethanol vapor. And, according to multiple sources, that ethanol vapor (or angel’s share as it’s also known) vastly increases the more barrels a facility houses.
Several class-action lawsuits were filed against Louisville area distilleries in 2012, but they were eventually dismissed. And internationally, residents in Ontario, Canada, filed a lawsuit surrounding the Hiram Walker Distillery in Lakeshore.
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